Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to weighing and dispensing portions of food or other material and, more particularly, although not exclusively, to the dispensing of predetermined portions of cooked potato chips, fried potatoes, croquettes or other cooked food stuffs.
Scoop-out portioning, as employed everywhere from fish and chip takeways and fast food restaurants to large commercial and canteen kitchens, is subject to considerable weight discrepancies usually to the disadvantage of the caterer since kitchen staff are more likely to over-portion than give customers too little and risk complaint. For example, the Applicants estimate that an average shop/restaurant with a weekly intake of 455 kilograms of blanched frozen chips/french fries could lose from 40 to 50 per week by using conventional scoop-out portioning. Losses on a far greater scale could be incurred by caterers, motorway cafes and large industrial canteens. Furthermore, the exact number of portions served is rarely known.
It is an object of this invention to weigh and dispense portions of food or other material, particularly cooked potato products, by providing a unit in which the above mentioned difficulties are minimized or eliminated and, in which in particular, the portions can be accurately weighed and dispensed automatically, permitting accurate portion control.
It is another object of the invention to count each weighed portion.